The PC—you know, the technology everyone dismisses—rolled into Vegas for CES 2015 with an entourage so big, it would make even 50 Cent proud. So yes, even though January's barely begun, the year's PCs are already looking great. We rounded up the brashest of the show into one spectacular display of PC power.

Late last year, HP kicked off the Windows war against Google's Chromebooks with its $200 Streambook 11, and now the company is back again to tackle Chromeboxes with its Stream Mini PC.

The Stream Mini is essentially a NUC-sized micro PC with a Celeron 2957U, 2GB of DDR3L/1600 and a 32GB M.2 SSD. In addition to the unit, you also get 200GB of Microsoft OneDrive storage free for two years as well as a $25 gift card to the Windows Store that can be used to buy apps, music, and even Xbox one games. And to further sweeten the deal, HP is even throwing in a keyboard and mouse too for the Stream Mini PC's $180 asking price.

CyberPower's new Fang Trinity looks like no PC we've ever seen here at PCWorld. In fact, it looks more like a futuristic space pod than a computer.

Yet make no mistake, this is a real PC. And one that packs a punch too.

On paper the specs are something anyone would be happy to have in his or her system: a liquid-cooled 4GHz Intel Core i7 4790K, Gigabyte Z97 Mini-ITX motherboard, five SSDs, one 3.5-inch hard drive, a Blu-ray drive, a full-size 500 watt power supply, and a full-size GeForce GTX 980 graphics card.

Intel may have more than just newer Broadwell processors up its sleeve as it revamps its bare-bones NUC PCs.

Images on Intel’s website—as discovered by Legit Reviews—show a redesigned enclosure for the miniature desktops, which include the processor and other basic components but require users to bring their own operating system, storage and RAM.

Most noticeably, the two USB 3.0 ports on the front of the enclosure come in blue and yellow, and it’s likely that the yellow port will be able to send power even when the NUC is turned off. The two ports have also been bunched closer together to the headphone jack and IR sensor. Intel may have managed to slim down the enclosure on its smaller NUC models as well, with Legit Reviews claiming a height of 1.2 inches, down from the previous 1.4 inches. (These models can only contain solid state storage, while a larger 1.9-inch enclosure can house an internal HDD.)

Great minds think alike. So too, apparently, do hardware makers designing their own workspaces of the future.

Following HP’s announcement of the Sprout PC last week, Dell showed off its own double-touchscreen PC, which it merely called the Dell “smart desk.” Like the Sprout, the smart desk concept uses a large LCD monitor—presumably the Dell UltraSharp 27 Ultra HD 5K monitor it launched in September—paired with a touchscreen display perched on the desk in front of it.

One of the painful realities of buying a gaming laptop is that no matter how close to the bleeding edge you get, its graphics processor will be practically obsolete in a year or two. That’s great for laptop manufacturers, but it sucks for gamers. Alienware has a solution: The Alienware Graphics Amplifier.

The $299 Graphics Amplifier is basically a PCIe x4 slot in a box, with an integrated 460-watt power supply. Plug in just about any desktop video card, connect the box to an Alienware 13 laptop (the only laptop on the market equipped with the required proprietary interface), and you get desktop gaming performance.

As the line between desktop PCs, notebooks, and tablet continues to blur, the time may be right for Intel’s NUC—and the company decided to get a bit crazy at its Intel Developer Forum just to show off what its tiny PCs can do.

Tucked away at a booth at IDF are what Intel calls the Next Generation of Computing, or just mini PCs. For just a couple hundred bucks, you can invest in a bare-bones PC that barely takes up more room than your breakfast bagel, and with some serious horsepower, too. Now, Intel’s next NUCs are taking aim at the 14-nm Broadwell generation.

Alienware Alpha, the “Steam-Machine-That-Totally-Isn’t-A-Steam-Machine-Because-It-Runs-Windows,” is now available for preorder, the company announced Tuesday. The box retails for $550 and includes a wireless Xbox 360 controller.

We got a first look at the Alpha’s UI last week in San Francisco, and the key word here is Console.

“This building that we’re at right now, the foundation of this building, we can’t see it,” said Alienware business development manager Marc Diana. “We can’t see what’s behind this drywall. But we know what’s behind there! We know that it’s concrete and rebar and copper plumbing and all sorts of stuff. That’s the same concept here. We know that Windows 8.1 is powering this experience, but a user doesn’t have to see it if they don’t want to.”

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Desktops8 PCs that get you more than the low-end iMacFri, 20 Jun 2014 03:00:00 -0700Nick MediatiNick MediatiAnd it's only $1099!

On Wednesday, Apple released a new entry-level iMac. It has a 1.4GHz Core i5 CPU (with Turbo Boost up to 2.7GHz), 8GB of memory, a 500GB hard drive, an Intel HD Integrated Graphics 5000 chipset, and a 21.5-inch, 1920x1080 display. The cost? A mere $1099.

Intel’s fifth-generation Core processor family—code-named Broadwell—might be late, but the company has cooked up a couple of brand-new Haswell-class desktop CPUs that PC enthusiasts are sure to dig. Code-named Devil’s Canyon, Intel unveiled the all-new Core i7-4790K and Core i5-4690K processors at Computex on Tuesday (Taiwan time). Intel is also marking the 20th anniversary of its Pentium processor by introducing the all-new Pentium G3258.

The Core i7-4790K is notable for its ability to run all four of its cores at a base clock frequency of 4.0GHz. Other Intel CPUs have been able to reach this frequency on one or several cores for brief periods (a burst mode Intel identifies as “Turbo Frequency”), but this new part will run that fast consistently and boast a turbo frequency up to 4.4GHz.

Asus announced a slew of PC gaming-oriented products at Computex on Tuesday (Taiwan time). The new additions to the company’s Republic of Gamers (ROG) lineup include two desktop PCs, a laptop, three motherboards, a video card, and a new display. The early info we received is a little thin, but here’s what we know.

The ROG G20 Gaming Desktop is a small-form-factor PC with an intriguing case design. Asus claims that a hidden airflow tunnel and an external power supply will render the system nearly silent, even when outfitted with an Intel Core i7 CPU and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 discrete graphics processor. A customizable lighting system will deliver up to 8 million color combinations in three zones in and around the chassis. Depending on configuration, Asus says the system will sell for between $800 and $1700 when it ships in North America in the third quarter.

Dell needs an image makeover, according to Jonathan Guttell, Director of Global Consumer Messaging at the now privately held PC manufacturer. “Seventy percent of family computer-buying decisions are driven by high-school and college kids. And their perception is that Dell makes the products that they use in school or that their parents use at work," he said. "We’re not fun.” The new hybrids, all-in-ones, and tablets Dell announced on Monday at Computex in Taipei kick off the company’s efforts get the kids excited about its brand.

“Devices have become part of the wardrobe” of these young decision drivers, according to Guttell. Looking at the new Inspiron-series 2-in-1 laptops, that wardrobe apparently includes Yoga pants. One of the most notable features of Dell’s upcoming 11- and 13-inch Inspiron-series 2-in-1 laptops are 360-degree hinges that allow them to be used in tablet, easel, tent, and conventional laptop modes—just like Lenovo’s Yoga-series notebooks.

For gamers and desktop users looking to shift to the new DDR4 memory as quickly as possible, the wait will end in the third quarter this year.

Crucial expects to ship new DDR4 memory for both servers and desktops around the same time in the third quarter, said Michael Moreland, worldwide product marketing manager at Crucial.

New DDR memory is usually shipped first for servers and then for desktops, but that trend will change with DDR4, which has been under development for more than five years. PCs will be faster and more power efficient with DDR4, which provides 50 percent more memory bandwidth than DDR3 and 35 percent more power savings.

Lenovo has announced a number of additions to its consumer all-in-one and notebook PC lineups, including a smaller version of the A740 all-in-one it showed off at CES in January.

The Lenovo A540 AiO will feature a 23.8-inch IPS display that delivers resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels. Encased in a distinctive, all-aluminum enclosure, the desktop PC will be offered with CPU options up to an Intel Core i7 and discrete graphics up to an Nvidia GeForce GT 840. Prices will start at $1280 when the computer ships in July.

Chips designed for graphics, gaming, and diminutive desktops that practically disappear: Intel vice president Lisa Graff announced all that and more at a press event Wednesday night in San Francisco. The new chips include an “unlocked” fourth-generation Core processor, code-named Devil’s Canyon; a new Extreme Edition part; and an “anniversary edition” Pentium processor. Graff also showed off Intel’s next generation of the Core architecture, code-named Broadwell.

Intel is continuing to invest in new form factors, said Graff, including Black Brook, a portable all-in-one PC that will use the upcoming, next-generation Broadwell processor.

The traditional PC industry saw its sharpest decline ever in 2013, and the sales drought is expected to continue through 2018, IDC reported Tuesday.

The firm said that PC shipments fell by 9.8 percent overall last year, the sharpest drop on record. While the fourth quarter actually performed better than expected, IDC said that sales dried up in emerging markets, dipping 11.3 percent. This is evidence that tablets and phones are cutting into sales all across the world, IDC said.

In total, IDC reported that 315.1 million PCs shipped in 2013, and that 295.9 million are expected to be sold in 2014, a 6 percent dip. By 2018, IDC said, the PC market should drop to annual sales of 291.7 million units.